Another of my responsiblities at Deaf Development Program is to train two HIV prevention outreach workers. They are two vivacious, outgoing-for Deaf Cambodian women. They have been training with an older hearing instructor who really hasn't gotten the idea when it comes to working with people whose primary communication is visual.

Sopheap helps out at my apartment with cleaning and straightening stuff up. She comes once a week with her hearing boyfriend.

In her role as an HIV outreach worker, she has a quick grasp of otherwise very complicated metaphors and examples we need to use to each Deaf young people 1) What HIV is; 2) Who gets HIV; 3) How to prevent HIV transmission; 4) How to get the HIV test; and 5) what to do if the test turns positive.

Though Sopheap was orphaned at an early age, she has an outgoing personality and a thirst for learning that with with the encouragement of her foster family have really given her a wide outlook on the world and a willingness to look outside of herself for information. Her friend Sreytouch on the other hand has a Deaf identical twin sister and a second younger sister who is deaf. Her advantage of having grown up in what could have been a language rich family is somewhat tempered by her shy personality and her lack of world experience. The discussions they are going to lead have the five components and three object lessons. They were specifically design to be easy to understand no matter how much language exposure you have attained. My housemate, Tashi will continue to train them as I leave tomorrow for Hawaii. The two of them are one of the things I will miss about Phnom Penh while I return home.